# The lifestyle in a sound material-cycle society is the exercise of the 3Rs! "Re-style"

The ministry of the Environment runs a Website for the Web magazine “Re-Style” (http://www.re-style.jp/) to provide easy-to-understand information and what can be done in daily life to reduce wastes and make effective use of resources as well as develop eco-friendly lifestyles.

In “Re-Style,”

“Features” that provide topical information related to the 3Rs and

Rich contents, such as “Re-stylist Talk” that introduces interviews with celebrities and artists about their eco-friendly efforts in their daily lives and lifestyle, are provided.

In addition, it has a more user-friendly search function, “Re-style Search,” which allows the search of select regions or categories, such as “Buy, sell, and give,” “Repair,” and “Live and enjoy.” It provides necessary information on Websites, companies, etc. related to the 3Rs.

Furthermore, a Website for mobile terminals has been available since fiscal 2008, enabling easy access to the site from outdoors or in a person’s spare time.

## (2) Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law (Waste Management Law)

### A. Comprehensive Actions in Waste Management

In March 2001, the Minister of the Environment decided and officially announced the “Basic Guidelines for the Comprehensive and Systematic Promotion of Waste Reduction Measures and Other Appropriate Treatments” (Basic Guidelines). The guidelines basically provide the following: (1) the generation of wastes should be controlled as much as possible, (2) then actual wastes should be used as cyclically as possible in the order of reuse, recycling, and heat recovery in consideration of prevention of improper waste treatment and reduction of the environmental load, and (3) wastes unable to be subject to proper and cyclical use, even after such generation control and proper and cyclical use have been thoroughly carried out should be treated properly. With these processes, it is required for the final disposal volume of municipal waste and that of industrial waste to be reduced by about 50% by fiscal 2010, compared with fiscal 1997, and, also in fiscal 2006, efforts to achieve the target were steadily made.

In addition, when the Waste Management Law was revised in June 2003, provisions concerning the formulation of the Wastes Disposal Facility Development Plan were added to the law, resulting in the repeal of the Law for Special Measures for the Improvement and Construction of Waste Treatment Facilities. The Waste Disposal Facility Development Plan, whose target was changed from “amount of projects” to “results to achieve” based on the discussions about the revision of the ideal state of social capital development by the national government, was decided on by the Cabinet in October 2003. Because this plan was supposed to reach its final year in fiscal 2008, the new Wastes Disposal Facility Development Plan into which a perspective on cooperation with measures against global warming was incorporated was decided on by the Cabinet in March 2008.

“Subsidy System for Promoting the Establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society,” under which targets for promoting the 3Rs of wastes were set to promote the development of waste treatment and recycling facilities cross-jurisdictionally and comprehensively, was established in fiscal 2005. Under this system, municipal waste treatment facilities, such as heat recovery facilities, high-efficiency raw material and fuel recycling facilities, sludge recycling centers, final disposal sites, recycling centers, have been developed to promote the generation control, cyclical use, and proper treatment of wastes. In fiscal 2008, 51 regional plans for effectively using this subsidy were formulated.

Furthermore, social capital development programs that utilize private finance initiatives (PFI) to develop municipal waste treatment facilities (PFI programs) were subsidized.

When the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law was revised in June 2000, requirements for business operators to be designated as waste treatment center operators were relaxed in order to promote the further use of the Solid Waste Treatment Center System. In addition, in order to support the development of first-class waste treatment facilities that include the private sector, such excellent facilities are qualified as specified facilities, based on the “Law to Promote the Development of Specified Facilities for the Disposal of Industrial Waste.” In fiscal 2008, one corporation was designated as a waste treatment center, and, at the end of the same fiscal year, 18 corporations were designated. In addition, the subsidy system created in fiscal 2000 for model development projects by industrial waste treatment facilities has promoted the further development of industrial waste treatment facilities operated by the public sector. In fiscal 2008, five projects for developing controlled landfill sites for domestic wastes and industrial waste, etc. were subsidized.

Among the greater metropolitan areas where final disposal sites are especially difficult to secure, in the Kinki area, the Osaka Bay Regional Offshore Environmental Improvement Center promoted the smooth development of regional waste disposal facilities and landfill facilities.

In addition, soft measures seen in the sorting and collecting garbage, etc. by municipalities, which would lead to more reduction and recycling of wastes, were assisted. The Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law revised in 1992 was enforced in December 1993, and, since then, necessary regulations, such as for the export of wastes to be checked by the